Half Moon Bay library’s grand opening

Offering 22,000 square feet of space and two floors, the new library is three times the size of its predecessor, and at least that many more people are expected to frequent it. It offers much more than a standard library.

“We see this as a transformative facility,” said Deputy City Manager Matthew Chidester. “It transforms the community around it and the people who use it.”

Most of the space is still dedicated to books of all varieties, including bilingual ones and a lot more of them than the old library had room for. It’s also home to an expanded DVD and media collection, with about as many new releases as one would find in a video rental store, back when those existed.

Upstairs, all bookshelves are on wheels, which allow for a variety of uses in the big, high-ceilinged and well-lit room. On clear days, the ocean can be seen from many of the windows.

The library offers more than 20 desktop computers, and residents can check out laptops for a week at a time from a vending machine. GoPro cameras can also be rented.

A makerspace is equipped with sewing, embroidery and button-making machines, a 3D printer, robots and an HTC Vice virtual reality system.

It’s fitting that the technology-rich collection would be housed in such a cutting edge building, the first net-zero energy building in San Mateo County.

Every window and accompanying blinds are set to automatically open and close depending on the temperature and time of day. The roof is covered in solar panels, the floors feature radiant heating and an automated book return system ensures that books and other items are back on the shelves in no time.

Public Works Director John Doughty said it’s been a challenge learning the library’s new high-tech systems and so a company has been hired to handle them, at least for the first year.

The second floor is also home to quiet rooms that can be used for anything from studying to business meetings; a dedicated space for the library’s literacy and tutoring programs and teens get their own room as well. Officials are hoping the new library will attract that demographic in particular as historically, teens haven’t been the biggest library users in Half Moon Bay, Doughty said.

A new community room attached to the library can accommodate 100 people, and features a catering kitchen and accordion wall that can split the room in two. An exterior wall can also be folded to open the room up to the adjacent outdoor patio.

Around the corner on the southern end of the site is more outdoor space where children can play or enjoy story time in a small amphitheater. That area will also feature willow huts, which are small structures for kids made out of branches and other organic material.

That space can be accessed from the children’s room, which is filled with rows of young adult and picture books, different kinds of comfortable seating and what Doughty described as the signature feature of libraries designed by architect Noll and Tam: large circular reading nooks that, in this case, look out on the patio.

The library has been in the works for years, and its cost was evenly split between the city and county, with additional funds from Measure K, the half-cent countywide sales tax and the Friends of the Half Moon Bay Library. The city is hoping to recoup some of that money through naming rights. So far just four have been purchased.

“When you have something like this [library], it benefits the entire community, every demographic, every person, but especially those who don’t have resources or a quiet place to study or the internet at home,” Chidester said. “You’re opening up a whole new world to those kids and their families.”

Starting Saturday, Aug, 18, the library will be open daily after the ribbon cutting ceremony. It’s located at 620 Correas St. in Half Moon Bay.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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